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enThe Baz Luhrmann Index: Rating The Great Gatsby Trailer, Among Othershttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-baz-luhrmann-index-rating-the-great-gatsby-trailer-moulin-rouge-romeo-juliet-movies-feminism
<p>If your your dreams were filled with anachronistic pop songs and gold glitter last night, blame it on <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0525303/"target="_blank">Baz Luhrmann</a>. The trailer for his latest film, <em>The Great Gatsby</em>, <a href="http://thehairpin.com/2012/05/look-were-gonna-talk-about-the-gatsby-trailer-now"target="_blank">hit the Internet yesterday like a Rolls Royce hitting Myrtle Wilson</a> (too soon?). </p>
<p><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7262904998_fb59d9f4c3.jpg" alt="Screen shot from the Great Gatsby trailer, showing the four leads sitting around a table staring outward." /><br />
<em>The restlessness approached hysteria?</em></p>
<p>With its thumping soundtrack, glitz, glamour, tragic romance, and frenzied edits, you'd know this thing was a Luhrmann production from a mile away. And if opinions around the Bitch office are any indicator, you either LOVE it or you LOATHE it. To help you further appreciate (or hatepreciate as the case may be) the <em>Great Gatsby</em>, let's look at the trailers all of Baz Luhrmann's feature-length films (don't worry, there are only five) and rate them using what I'm calling The Luhrmann Index. </p>
<p>The films of BazMark (apparently his <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/person/100353/Baz-Luhrmann/biography"target="_blank">given name</a>, which rules) are known for a few things. Among them are, in no particular order: postmodernism, seizure-inducing editing (quick cuts, if you will), lavish costumes, notably anachronistic music, dramatic irony, breathy ingenues, shouting, doomed romance, and what I like to call flash (you might call it pizazz, panache, or bullshit). However, some of them (or rather, their trailers, because that's what we're talking here) are Luhrmannier than others. </p>
<p>So how Luhrmann is Luhrmann? Let's find out!</p>
<h3><em>Strictly Ballroom</em>, 1992</h3>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7dtfxf3FFx4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<em>Signature shout: "What is so wrong with the way I dance?!"</em></p>
<p>Considering this was Le Luhr's first film and therefore probably his lowest budget, he's making it work. Glitter, elaborate movements, and loud exclamations are all present here, but the love story isn't doomed and, honestly, for a Luhrmann production this trailer is a little slow. </p>
<p><strong>Luhrmann Index Rating: 3/5 BazMarks</strong></p>
<h3><em>Romeo + Juliet</em>, 1996</h3>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6S6IJWilpx4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<em>Signature shout: "A plague on both your houses!</em></p>
<p>Now we're seeing The Full Luhrmann. Dude's got a bigger budget, and he's using it to supply shirtless guys with solid gold guns (damn I love this movie). This trailer is a bit lower in volume—at least for the first half—than some of his other stuff though, and the music (Des'Ree's "Kissing You"), while modern, was written for the movie and thus doesn't work as a pop signifier. What we do have here, though, is a doomed love story with a wide-eyed innocent at its core. The audience knows how this one ends, and it pairs the original text with quasi-modern-day style (helloooo postmodernism) in true Luhrmann fashion.</p>
<p><strong>Luhrmann Index Rating: 4/5 BazMarks</strong></p>
<h3><em>Moulin Rouge!</em>, 2001</h3>
<p><iframe width="420" height="236" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dtEgAx80NC4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<em>Signature shout: "Tell me you don't love me!"</em></p>
<p>Burlesque! Men in top hats singing Police songs! An innocent in peril! A tragic love story! Neon! A <a href="http://www.bazthegreatsite.com/redcurtaintrilogy.htm"target="_blank">literal red curtain</a>! An exclamation point! The alternate title for this movie could've been <em>That's So BazMark</em>. </p>
<p><strong>Luhrmann Index Rating: 5/5 BazMarks</strong></p>
<h3><em>Australia</em>, 2008</h3>
<p><iframe width="420" height="236" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ftnZg0G4j_E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<em>Signature shout: Zzzzzzz... </em></p>
<p>For a Baz production, this trailer is a total snooze. The music is period-appropriate (ish), the costumes are dusty, and the love story just isn't star-crossed (or compelling) enough. Sure, the scale is epic, and there are some fires and explosions—but where's the glitz and glam? And don't try to tell me you can't do <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7t9vP9SVwc"target="_blank">sequins in the desert</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Luhrmann Index Rating: 1/5 BazMarks</strong></p>
<h3><em>The Great Gatsby</em>, 2012</h3>
<p><iframe width="420" height="236" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/G7DonhNflsw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<em>Signature shout: "Get the hell out of here!"</em></p>
<p>OH SHIT YOU GUYS. Luhrmann in full effect! From the <em>Watch the Throne</em> intro music to Carey Mulligan's sad looks to Leonardo DiCaprio to all gold everything, our boy is back. And to top it off, this one's in 3D!</p>
<p><strong>Luhrmann Index Rating: 5/5 BazMarks</strong></p>
<p>Now that we've positioned <em>The Great Gatsby</em> in the Luhrmann trailer library, are you feeling it or what?</p>
<p>P.S. I wish I'd done everything on earth with you.</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-baz-luhrmann-index-rating-the-great-gatsby-trailer-moulin-rouge-romeo-juliet-movies-feminism#commentsBaz LuhrmannratingsThe Great GatsbyMoviesThu, 24 May 2012 18:38:31 +0000Kelsey Wallace17085 at http://bitchmagazine.orgTube Tied: A Short Post About the Cancellation of "Huge"http://bitchmagazine.org/post/tube-tied-a-short-post-about-the-cancellation-of-huge
<p><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5059878627_f22fcc7032.jpg" /></p>
<p>ABC Family <a href="http://www.daemonstv.com/2010/10/05/huge-cancelled/" rel="nofollow">has cancelled</a> one of my favorite shows of the last year—<i>Huge</i>. (On the chance you missed it, I highly recommend <a href="http://abcfamily.go.com/watch/huge/SH5547501" rel="nofollow">watching it online</a> on ABC Family's website. Hopefully they'll leave it up awhile.)
</p><p> It's sad, though not surprising. <i>Huge</i> had the kind of pedigree that often spells network doom. It was created by Winnie Holzman, whose other most famous achievement is the also-one-season critical darling <i>My So-Called Life</i>. It was also a summer series—rarely ratings bonanzas—and it only aired on a niche network. Still, that considered, it averaged about 1.9 million viewers over its run, which doesn't sound like a lot until you realize that the third season of <i>Mad Men</i>, for all its critical adulation, only averaged <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=11248966" rel="nofollow">about 1.8 million viewers</a> during its third season. It's true that the math is different on a network than at a cable channel, in terms of an acceptable amount of viewers, but still.
</p><p>
Fans, <a href="http://jezebel.com/5656117/sign-the-petition-to-save-huge" rel="nofollow">spearheaded by Jezebel</a>, are organizing one of those campaigns, the kind I don't really understand, to try to pressure the network into giving the show another season. I doubt it will work, though I don't want to discourage anyone from signing the petition. I just don't really understand this particular variant of consumer activism, the "please-renew-my-favorite-show" campaign. For one thing, as I'm sure no one needs me to tell them, television is not really a democratic institution per se. Nor popular culture, on the broad scale anyway—if the entire existence of <i>Bitch</i> magazine proves nothing else, it is that pop culture is largely underinclusive and often overly dismissive of the experiences of women, people of color, trans people, people with disabilities, and on down the list. We pop culture critics find rays of light here and there, and try to give credit where credit is due, but on the whole I would not say pop culture criticism gives me much confidence that the men (and women!) in the halls of power are much prepared to hand over their megaphones. They are too busy making money to care about whether the product they are putting out is any good.
</p><p>
In that context, it's probably somewhat irrational of me to say, but I still can't help but think that somehow part of what sank <i>Huge</i> was that it took diversity seriously. And not to repeat myself from the last time I wrote about this issue, but this comes particularly clear when <i>Huge</i> is contrasted with the runaway success of <i><a href="/post/tube-tied-why-glee-bugs-me-so-much" rel="nofollow">Glee</a></i>. Both shows make claims to being about diversity, but one does so by way of stereotypes and the other by way of characters that very closely resemble living, breathing human beings. And even on the broader scale of telelvision shows generally, <i>Huge</i>, in the end, is one of only a very few examples that I can think of of shows aimed at addressing some kind of marginalized experience that didn't let that "angle" overshadow the humanity of its characters. Flat sells, it seems, and until it doesn't, until people actually want depth and humanity in their stories, I don't think that shows this good can possibly survive.</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/tube-tied-a-short-post-about-the-cancellation-of-huge#commentsHugenetworksratingsTube TiedTube TiedThu, 07 Oct 2010 18:49:28 +0000Michelle Dean6540 at http://bitchmagazine.org